Monday, January 15, 2007

"We play the loudest music in Poland."

For fans of "Nuggets"-style '60s garage and psych, Poland's Czerwone Gitary are a must-hear. Sure, they kind of sound like Herman's Hermits, but when the penalty for being radical was death or gulag, you can't blame them for taking the easier road.

Introduced to the sounds of Pop Britain by sailors visiting their seaport hometown of Gdansk, CG became one of the greatest and most famous of all Eastern Bloc bands. They degenerated into folk-rock wimpitude by the mid-'70s (as, alas, so many did), but you can still imagine the excitement of Polish teenagers on speed and bad potato vodka in the following cuts, can't you?